The following is an account of Uzi Narkiss, the officer of Central Command during the Six Day War that liberated the Old City. The excerpt is from his book The Liberation of Jerusalem (London 1983) and compiled in the book The Jerusalem Anthology in honor of the three-thousandth anniversary of the city in 1996.A spectacle of legend.
We ran toward Motta Gur, standing on the Mount, where the flag of Israel flew. We were joined first by Moshe Stempel, Motta's deputy, and then by Rabbi Goren. We embraced and the Rabbi prostrated himself and genuflected toward the Holy of Holies. In a resonant voice he recited the ancient Prayer to Battle(Deut 20:3-4):
Hear, O Israel, ye approach this day into battle against your enemies; let not your hearts faint, fear not, and do not tremble, neither ye be terrified because of them; for the Lord your God is He that goeth with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you!
We made our excited way through the streets to the Mugrabi's Gate, along a dim alley, turned right down a slight of steps, impatiently faced another right turn - and there it was. The Western Wall. I quivered with memory. Tall and awesome and glorious, with the same ferns creeping between the great stones, some of them inscribed.
Silently I bowed my head. In the narrow space were paratroopers, begrimed, fatigued, overburdened with weapons. And they wept. They were not wailing at the Western Wall, not lamenting in the fashion familiar during the Wall's millenia of being. These were tears of joy, of love, of passion, of an undreamed first reunion with the ancient monument to devotion and to prayer. They clung to its stones, kissed them, these rough, battle-weary paratroopers, their lips framing the Shema. Returned, it seemed to the temple...
But more exalted, prouder than all of them, was Rabbi Goren. Wrapped in a tallit, blowing the ram's horn, and roaring like a lion: "Blessed be the Lord God, Comforter of Zion and Builder of Jerusalem, Amen! Suddenly he saw me, embraced me, and planted a ringing kiss on my cheek, a signal to everyone to hug and kiss and join hands. The Rabbi, like one who had waited all his life for this moment, intoned the Kaddish, the El moleh Rahamin (O God, full of mercy...) in memory of those who had fallen in the name of the Lord to liberate the Temple, the Temple Mount and Jerusalem the City of the Lord: "May they find their peace in Heaven... and let us say Amen."
The restrained weeping become sobs, full throated, an uncurbed emotional outburst. Sorrow, fervor, happiness, and pain combined to produce this mass of grieving and joyous men, their cheeks wet, their voices unsteady. Again the shofar, was blown: tekiya (a short but unbroken sound), followed by the shevarim(a short but tremolo sound). And Rabbi Goren intoned, like a herald: "This year. at this hour, in Jerusalem!" (le-shana hazot, be-shaa hazot, beYerushalayim)
Until that moment I had thought I was immune to anything. Even the stones responded. "We shall stand at attention and salute! Attention!" I shouted. "And sing Hatikvah, came the choke voice of Haim Bar-Lev. We started to sing. To our voices were added those of the paratroopers, hoarse and distinct. Sobbing, and singing, it was as though, through the Hatikvas, we could unburden our hearts of their fullness and our spirits of their emotion.
We spent ten minutes in front of the Western Wall and at 10:55 were on our way back to the basement of Binyanei Ha'ooma. There was plenty of work to be done. The Old City had not yet been cleared of snipers, and the West Bank had not yet been taken.
Meanwhile, we learned, the Jerusalem Brigade had at the last minute made an improvised entry into the Old City through the Dung Gate. Amos, the G-Branch officer, having heard the 55th Brigade's announcement that Augusta Victoria had been taken, realized that the paratroops would immediately break into the Old City and determined that Zahal's Jerusalem Brigade, which for nineteen years had defended the divided city, must participate in that historic entry. Two companies of the battalion which took Abu-Tor were assembled at the Mount Zion and moved along the Walls to the Silwan stream to enter through the Dung Gate. They reached the Temple Mount shortly after 10 A.M. and from there turned westwards...
At Binyanei Ha'ooma an Order-of-the-Day was born:
"We are standing on you threshhold, Jerusalem. Today we entered your gates. Jerusalem, City of David and Solomon, is in our hands.
This morning, in the shadow of the Western Wall, we sang Hatikva, we mourned our dead, fallen in the battle for the city.
Troops of the Command, brave fighters, devoted warriors, this day and your valor shall be in our hearts forever.
- Major General Uzi Narkiss
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